As Argentina’s 2023 citrus season is coming to an end, they have high demand in their main export markets, but due to the drought and many challenges they are unable to provide enough supply. “Due to the drought we as large packer could only use half of our pack house, but with the same overhead costs to be covered,” says Nahuel Lavino, export sales manager at Fama, an Argentinian citrus exporter and importer.
Argentina’s oranges and mandarin export volumes up to week 30 of 2023 is the second lowest for this period in 10 years according to the latest statistics from FederCitrus. Exports for mandarins and oranges is half of last season, with oranges and mandarins up to week 30 of 2022 at 53,000 pallets while for the same period in 2023 it is only 25,000 pallets.
“It's just unfortunate that we cannot cope with the demand once there is high demand. Volumes are lower than ever while demand is high, especially now that South Africa seems to be going to end its season sooner, but unfortunately, we cannot cope with this demand because Argentina doesn't have a lot of fruit due to the droughts. This combination should make prices go high for late oranges and mandarins that arrive in good quality,” explains Lavino.
He says they are barely making ends meet as a business. “We are barely making ends meet! Our business was planned to move volume, we have half of our packing house not being used due to the lack of fruit, which brings our costs per box higher. We hope that the market will adapt to this high demand and accept higher prices!”
Argentina’s citrus harvest started later due to the many challenges brought about by not only the drought that led to small sizes and lower volumes. The country has currency challenges, high inflation, uncertain politics, while an emergency declaration was issued for producers in Tucuman. All these factors made for a really challenging 2023 citrus season in Argentina. Other factors include bureaucratic challenges in the European market. A normally reliable Russian market has seen the Ruble tank after a prolonged war in Ukraine and international sanctions, bringing further challenges for the Argentine citrus sector to contend with.
Fama, like many other Argentinian citrus suppliers, now face the dilemma of which customer to supply or not with the limited volumes they still have available. “So now our focus is to make the best that we can with this opportunity of high demand. It's unfortunate because we have many customers who ask us and plead for fruit and we cannot provide it to them all. It's really hard to decide to whom we can provide and to whom we cannot,” states Lavino.
Source - https://www.freshplaza.com
